


W ftO^'T^i^ 



47 0'^*: r™^Tv! i;93 



J^-A 



SHtf^CTC 



X JL j^JL24%%%% 



GREA T 

DEB A IE 



%-S: 




r • 



5^^ 
P^ M^ THE 



Great Debate 



/ 



Dear Sir, — You wish to know my notion 

On sartin pints that rile the land; 
There's nothin' that my nature so shuns. "^ 

Ez bein' mum or underhand. 

I'm a straight-spoken sort o' creetur 

Thet blurts right out wut's in his head. 
An' ef I've one pecooler feetur. 

ft is a nose thet wunt be led. 

So, to begin at the beginnin", 

An' come directly to the pint, 
I think the country's underpinnin'. 

Is some consid'ble out o' jint. 

I aint agoin' to try your patience 

By tellin' who done this or thet. 
I don't make no insinooations, 

I jest let on I smell a rat. 

—James Russell Loivell in Bi^elow Papers. 



printed by tl]c <X\\i\<ix 

AND SOLD BY BRENTANO, 

CHICAQO 

«893. 



/ 



v._ 



COPYRIGHTED, 1893, BY THE AUTHOR 



1 H/S PAMPHLET 2jo COP/JiS 
ARE PRINTED 



TO 

THK SII.VEK-TONGUED SENATORS OF CONGRESS, 

WITH KINDLIEST 
FOKBKAKANCK FOK THKIK PASI', AND WITH MOST CORDIAL HOl'ES TDK THEIl! l-l'TVJKE. 

THIS LITTLE STORY 

IS 

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 



THE GREAT DEBATE 



In the realms of Wonderland, 
Where all folks, you understand. 
Have no need of common sense. 
But only of sweet eloquence, 
Once upon a direful time— 
If you will believe my rhyme- 
There was held a great debate. 
Concerning mighty things of State. 
The question to be settled was — 
What are good financial laws; 
Whether gold or silver should 
Be the standard of what's good 
In the money market; or 
Whether silver'd mix with d'or; 
Or whether paper greenbacks might 
Bring the nation back to light. 

This the question — far and near, 

Rent by qualms of inward fear. 

Came the Senators in state 

To attend the great debate. 

Scarce a soul of them but knew 

just what the others ought to do 

To bring the Ship of State straight back 

On the right financial tack. 

They came together and then, lo! 

Forgetting all they used to know. 

They talked and talked until their spec-ch 

Flew fairly out of human reach. 

into the ui)()er regions where 

Thought becometh merely air. 

Still each pressed forward one by one 

IV) see his patriot duty done. 



To help his country if he might, 

And glean a ray or two of light, 

By clearing out a little room 

In the dim financial gloom. 

The way they did it was by speech, 

They talked vast torrents, and then each 

Exploding words of noble fire 

Sank back contented to admire. 

No single man could tell you whence 

He had derived such eloquence. 

Like some fair, over-modest elf, 

Each charmed to death to liear himself, 

Amazed to find his words refined. 

To wealth he never had divined ; 

Wooed by music — all his own — 

Each like a king upon a throne, 

Rising up to heights sublime 

Soaring past both Space and Time, 

They poured forth golden floods of wit, 

E'en adding silver unto it. 

However, everybody sought 

To do his duty as he ought. 

All over-haste was held a crime. 

They left poor vulgar haste to Time. 

And after reveling in debate 

They sat them calmly down to wait — 

But not omitting, it is true, 

To speak a happy word or two. 

To show the country of their keep, 

That all of them were not asleep. 

Days passed and weeks; and still in state 
They held most dignified debate. 
Somehow, the bother seemed to be, 
That nobody could agree. 
At first the Senate atmosphere, 
Seemed to be fairly calm and clear, 
But as the smoke of conflict rose 



Betwixt the oold and silver foes, 

There fell a sort of panic rout, 

Turninor all thinofs inside out; 

Midst calm debate wherein a friend 

Could see some hope of ifinal end; 

Midst gleams of wisdom and of sense 

There came that flood of eloquence, 

And next a sort of stubl)orn fit 

That put a sudden end to it. 

Then all seemed bent to go it blind, 

With no attempt to give their mind 

Upon the questions grave of state, 

Which they had all come to debate; 

Some said they could but that they wouldn't, 

Some said would but that they couldn't, 

Some losing faith their side would win. 

Remained at home but were not in; 

Though ere they slept, each took great care 

To leave the w^ord — he was not there. 

Thus although all well understood 

What was for the country's good, 

After talk and speechifying, 

Debates and confabs and replying, 

Hobnobing, whispering, gerrymandering. 

Each failed to state his understanding — 

Or failed to state it with a vim 

That should win the rest to him. 

The reason, some men whispered, was 

They had lost their faith in laws, 

Doubtinof at the first attack — 

The plain and once familiar fact — 

Whether law is law at all, 

Or only something fanciful. 

A flock of geese, you understand, 
Had invaded all the land, 
'Till even sane men really doubted 
Whether nonsense could be scouted. 



Nay! some indeed held the conviction, 
Nonsense was sense and fact was fiction; 
Or fiction fact — or at least 
Both were raised from the same yeast. 
Now one's dough can't well be staked 
'Till one's bread has first been baked; 
Or 'till one has chance to know 
Whither-way the wind will blow. 
To be cautious, silent, wise, 
Shows a statesman's enterprise. 
When one runs a state, you see, 
It must be done carefully. 
When your dough begins to fall 
You needn't do a thing at all! 
Wash your hands of the whole matter- 
No good cook minds his own batter, 
When it turns out less than good, 
Or something else than what it should. 
Besides, real worry isn't for 
The diet of a Senator — 
His labor is to gravely choose 
Words and phrases for his views. 
Then, to sit in stately state, 
While he listens to debate. 
Tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee. 
Is all law is or ought to be, 
For that is what our grandsires meant 
When they first spelled Government. 
If the skies portend a storm, 
Men should come away from harm, 
And not tempt Fate. For 'tis plain — 
Though man makes sun-shades, God makes rain. 

Thus the statesmen in d(.'bates, 
Interfered not with the Fates. 
In order that they might advance, 
They placed their faith in tide and clianct-. 
Hoping somehow very soon 



A lift might come down from the moon. 

Now while each member held his place, 

Or reclined in easy grace 

In a comfortable chair, 

Or lived at home on soothing fare, 

This the state of thinofs elsewhere — 

Banks were broken; credit gone; 

Merchants ruined; farms undone; 

Factories idle; homes in want; 

Men and women pale and gaunt, 

Lifting hands in hungry need 

Praying for their daily bread. 

A million people on their backs, 

Stricken down by silver quacks. 

Who by using shrewd designs 

In the cause of private mines, 

Held at bay in grave debate 

The wisdom of a mighty state; 

By tricks and nostrums made it seem 

That good money is a dream. 

Ready made to hand, to-wit: 

If you just imagine it! 

Say: Thus and so it is, you'll see. 

Thus and so the fact shall be. 

Silver will be gold and then, 

Prosperity will come again. 

All this chanced, you understand, 
Far away in Wonderland. 
A pleasant place by angels run. 
Who, being silver-tongued each one, 
Have no need of common sense. 
But only of sweet eloquence. 
Therefore, although oft before 
And often after, many more 
Sessions came in pride together. 
To discuss the Nation's weather, 
To give their views and to advise 
What things for mortals might be wise, 
Yet all men living then agreed. 
That for pleasure or for need, 
Ne'er but once in all that state 
Was there heard such (jreat debate. 



/^N the 15th of August, 1893, a special session oi Con- 
gress was convened to consider means by which the 
country might be put back onto its financial feet. Up to 
the present (October i6th), however, although much has 
been said, nothing has been done. 

Congress talks, the President frowns, the Silverites 
scheme, and the country still waits. 



N OTES 



We here appendja few opinions of the Country oun 
cerning its noble legislators: 



A special from New York to the Chi- 
caffo Tribune ol Sept. 24, says:— Prom- 
inent business men of this city say that 
immediate and unconditional lepeal of 
the silver bill is the only means of re- 
storing healthy activity to business and 
confidence to the banks. These are 
the opinions of men the soundness of 
whose judgment and common sense in 
matters of general interest is universally 
acknowledged. 



Jersey City, N. J., Oct. 15. — Rev. 
M. Gates, pastor of Grace M. E. church 
on the heights, prayed in his morning 
services that the Senators of the United 
States might cease their oratorical dis- 
plays while himdreds of thoiTsands were 
in distress and were brought to the 
verge of starvation by the failure of the 
Senate to pass the repeal bill to give 
the.'u relief. In his sermon he said: "I 
ijelieve that every patriot, regardless of 
^geographical distinction or party affilia- 
tion, will agree with me in the feeling 
that the present extraordinary session 
of the Senate of the United States is the 
l)iggest farce ever convened at the Cap- 
i'.o! of this Nation, or any other Nation." 



C/iicaj^o 



editorial: The 



Constitution created a Senate and a 
House of Representatives and gave to 
them the law-making power. It was 
given to them that it might be used, not 
left in abeyance. It was supposed by 
the framers of the Constitution that tiie 
co-ordinate action of the two branches 
was secured by the provision requiring 
them to meet on a given day and for- 
bidding either during a session to ad- 
journ for more than tliree days without 
the consent of the other, or to any other 
place than that in which both were sit- 
ting. They did not imagine that one of 
tliuse branches would remain in session 
for weeks and months, as inert as " the 
dull weed that roots itself in ease on 
Lethe wharf." 



New York flerald editorial, Oct. 16: 
The situation in the Senate has passed 
beyond the stage of a financial debate. 
It has become a constitutional struggle. 
The issue is more than one of legisla- 
tion vital to the prosperity of the coun- 
try. It is whether the Senate of the 
United States can transact business only 
by leave of any band of filibusters who 
may see fit to "hold up" the majority. 



and whether tlie country is at the mercy 
of any half dozen Senators who may 
choose to set up a Senatorial oligarchy. 

On that issue there can be no com- 
promise with honor or safety. There 
can be no surrender by the majority 
without cowardice. If the majority 
must go down in defeat before a rebel- 
lious minority, let it go down with its 
colors nailed to the masthead. 

Compromise would be surrender of ;i 
vital constitutional principle — the right 
of the majority to rule and of the Senate 
to legislate. It would be disastrous to 
the business interests of the country, 
and, we may add, disastrous to the rec- 
ord of every sound money Senator 
yielding to it. 

It is as true to-day as it was when 
Congress met that the unconditional re- 
peal of the suicidal silver law is essen- 
tial to business prosperity. It is as tru« 
now as it was then that vincondition.'il 
repeal is demanded by the people. Jt 
is the almost universal popular belief 
now, as it was then, that failure to re- 
peal — and compromise would bt: failure 
-would leave open the way to one of 
the worst panics the country has v^^vs 
known. 

The situation presents but one patri 
otic course to every Senator who would 
uphold the constitutional right of ih.i 
Senate to legislate and who would vote 
ihe relief so urgently needed by iho 
nation. That course is to put down 
obstruction and insist that a vote on 
unconditional repeat shall be taken. 



New Orleans /"iVavMW^ editorial. Oct. 

The United States Senate has devel- 
oped into the most remarkable obstruc- 
tion to legislation ever known in the 
world. It is not only able to put its 
veto on the action of the House, but it 
has demonstrated the ability of a minor- 
ity of Senators, and a small one at that, 
to block the way and utterly to paralyze 
the power of the majority. 



A special telegram to the Chicago 
Tribune ivom Washington, D. C, Oct. 
14, says: —Unconditional silver repeal 
is dead. It died as liberty may some 
time die, when a half-hearted, limp and 
cowardly majority in the Senate shall 
permit an aggressive, arrogant, and rev- 
olutionary minority to rule. The bill 
is dead because the dominant Demo- 
cratic majority has declared that it i.s 
powerless to overcome the minority. 



